Baseball writer life: being thrilled that the calendar flipped so that I can finally say “last year” or “last season” and have it mean the same thing as “the immediately preceding baseball season.”
I don’t want to completely ignore this thing, but I have two enormous buts:Cubs are now an "outside possibility" for Alex Bregman, according to Jon Heyman today on his Bleacher Report show.Tigers have the strongest interest. Blue Jays, Mets, Red Sox all in the mix as well. pic.twitter.com/ehemJBgPPh
— Locked On Cubs (@LockedOnCubs) January 1, 2025 Let me offer the most generous “but” first: it may well be true that the Cubs are an “outside possibility” for Alex Bregman, BUT that’s probably true of many, many other clubs, too. I don’t see a world where the Cubs are signing Bregman to anything except an overwhelmingly team-friendly short-term deal, especially with draft pick compensation owed. And is that really what Bregman is going to have to take? And if so, will the Cubs really be offering the best version? Sure, it’d be great to have him starting at third base for exactly one year, maximizing the presence of Kyle Tucker in 2025 and buying a little more time (and flexibility) for Matt Shaw. But is that realistic? Not really. And then the less generous “but”: with the calendar having flipped to 2025, you have to believe Scott Boras is pretty desperate to avoid with Bregman (and Pete Alonso) what happened last year with Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, and Jordan Montgomery. He is not going to want to see his guys squeezed at the last possible second in Spring Training, so there is probably a little extra work going on to speed things up and apply pressure wherever possible. So, it seems to me, even mentioning the Cubs feels like a bit of a (weak) leverage play on the more involved teams like the Tigers and Blue Jays or whoever. Look, if Bregman is still unsigned come next month, and if other plausible suitors have clearly fallen off, then I think we can at least pay a little attention here. But for now, I expect the Cubs to spend their remaining dollars on pitching and a bench bat or two. It seems like a small looming change to this year’s MLB Draft – shrinking from three days of draft to two days, with rounds 1-3 on Sunday and 4-20 on Monday – but the impact behind the scenes could be significant thanks to the structure of the bonus pool. As Greg Zumach writes:“Under the bonus system, teams are allocated slot values corresponding to each selection they have in the draft. The first ten rounds of that slot value go into a pool for each team and then, with a few restrictions, teams can split up that money to their players in the first ten rounds. The time after Round 10 ended on Day 2 and before Round 11 began on Day 3 was a key time to line up players who may have slipped through the cracks or have changed their “ask”.
Now? It’s going to be a wild ride and will require a ton of preparation, communication, and frankly, hustle from scouts, scouting supervisors, directors, research and development, and player development.”
After completing the first ten rounds of the draft, formerly by the end of day two, teams could spend the overnight period figuring out what they could actually pull off on day three with the remainder of their bonus pool. Now, that transition from round 10 to round 11 will take place right smack in the middle of the second day of the draft. Additional prep work, communication, and relationships will be all the more valuable now. And that’s happening all while the Trade Deadline will loom just two weeks after, since MLB is still doing the thing where they bury the draft at the All-Star break. Good idea on paper a few years ago, but clearly has played out so poorly. The draft now gets completely ignored, and organizations are scrambling to try to do two major, major things at the same time. Brennen Davis posts his farewell to the Cubs: View this post on InstagramA post shared by Brennen Davis (@_bigb_)
I can do nothing but wish Davis the best with the Yankees. It makes me mad/sad for him that his body got in the way of his breakout, but there’s still time for him to make it to The Show. It wasn’t going to happen in the near-term with the Cubs, so hopefully it does with the Yankees. Bonus fun in the comments from new Cub Gage Workman, who is apparently friends with Davis: “More of a cubs guy myself”, to which Davis replied, “You can have my locker.” A minor trade for the Brewers, who pick up sidearming righty reliever Grant Anderson from the Rangers. He’s a 27-year-old up-down type who has huge strikeout numbers in the minors but hasn’t quite gotten over the hump at the big league level yet. The Brewers have taken on a whole lot of guys like that in recent years, and arguably have had even more success than the Cubs at reclaiming them. Actress Emma Roberts pulled a 1/1 Jackson Holiday Topps Chrome rookie card, which is a wild sentence:Actress Emma Roberts really pulled a 1/1 Jackson Holliday card ?(via emmaroberts/IG) pic.twitter.com/vxRpQgIQ5R
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) January 2, 2025 twitter.com/MLB/status/1874986535650799722 I’m going to choose to believe she landed that hit because she buys a TON of cards with her acting money, and not because there is any underhanded guerrilla marketing going on. Also: I have never pulled a 1/1, much less a star rookie 1/1, so I am admittedly jealous. Enjoyed this read from Evan Altman on “motor preference” in baseball player development. The best part must’ve been the 21st inning, when the Brewers scored three runs and everyone thought, “OK, whew, finally this is over”:imagine a baseball game lasting over 8 hours pic.twitter.com/dYeu7sT6ST
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) January 2, 2025MORE FROM BLEACHER NATION: Check Out BN Fantasy | Subscribe to The BN Newsletter
Jonathan Toews is reportedly legitimately working toward a comeback. The Bears’ interim head coach reflects on his time at the helm. The line for Derrick Rose’s pop-up shop was nuts. Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The Buts of Bregman, Draft Changes, Davis Farewell, Dream Pull, and Other Cubs Bullets )
Also on site :